Foundation garment



' P 1951 M. w. BRAUSS FOUNDATION GARMENT Filed March 26, 1949 Invenfor finnie 7V, Bran/s5 Q l z W M? Patented Sept. 11, 1951 FOUNDATION GARMENT Minnie W. Brauss. Bloomfield, N. J., assignor to Corsetry, Inc., Derby, Conn, a, corporation of Connecticut Application March 26, 1949, Serial No. 83,657

"2 Claims.

This invention relates to garments and more particularly to supporting garments of the girdle or foundation type.

In accordance with the invention there is produced a novel foundation garment in which substantially the entire front section is constituted of a plurality of panels of stretchable fabric material which, prior to their being sewn together along adjacent edges, are of arcuate, slightly concave form. Thus, when adjacent panels are joined together by stitching such arcuate, slightly concave edges together, the panels are prestretched, thereby imparting to the garment, when worn, the capacity to exert an inward and upward pressure on the body of the wearer. The invention resides also in the method of fabricating a foundation garment in this manner.

An object of the invention is to provide a garment which will exert a yielding pressure inwardly and upwardly to support the wearer.

A further object is to provide a garment which, because of the way its component fabric panels are cut and assembled, will provide increased support.

These and other objects become apparent from the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a girdle embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a view showing the pattern from which the front part of the garment is made.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, the front of the garment, I, is made up of six sections-4|, I2, I4, I5, I6 and I1, and an elastic gusset member I8.

While I have shown my garment as a girdle it will be appreciated that the same principles can be applied to a panty girdle or to a heavier foundation garment.

Referring to Fig. 2, various members II to I8 inclusive are cut into panels as shown there. The panels I2 and I4, which constitute the upper portion of the front of the garment, are cut so that their meeting edges and 2| are concave and when they are sewn together by means of the seam 22 it is necessary to stretch them and slightly distort them to efiect the seam. This results in a tendency to pull inwardly so as to exert more pressure on the abdomen of the wearer than if the panels were cut on a straight line. The meeting edges between the panels I6 and I2 and the panels I4 and H are similarly cut so that the edge 23 and the edge 24 as well as the edge 25 and the edge 26 are likewise concave. As a result, when the edges 23 and 24 are sewn together by means of the seam 2'! and the edges 25 and 26 by means of the seam 2 8, the result is an upward pull and the garment will exert an upward pull to offer greater support to the abdomen. The best results are "secured by cutting the fabric, which is preferably a oneway stretch fabric, so that the stretch is in the direction of the arrows shown in Fig. 1. The upper portions of the panels I2 and I4 are curved somewhat inwardly as are the meeting edges of the panels II and I5, so that when the panel II is joined to the panel I2 by means of the seam 30 and the panels I5 and I4 are joined by means of the seam 3|, an additional stretch is provided in that area. It will be appreciated that when the garment is joined together there is a combination of pulls due to the method of combining vertical and bias strips in the different sections which supports and flattens the abdomen of the wearer.

The panels I6 and I! are bias cut panels and they are placed in the garment with the line of elasticity of the fabric from which they are cut lying along the lines shown by the arrows. It will be noted, therefore, from Fig. 1 that the direction of elasticity of the panels I6 and I! is substantially along the direction of a line which extends from the crotch of the wearer to the upper portion of the hip of the wearer. It should also be noted that the seams 21 and 28 between panels I2 and I6 and panels I4 and I! respectively, also lie along the direction of a line which extends from the crotch of the wearer to the upper portion of the hip of the wearer. By this structure the hip of the wearer is used to support the inward and upward pull of the garment on the abdomen of the wearer. Since the hip is a sturdy portion of the anatomy, it is especially adapted to act as a supporting point for this force, and there is very little likelihood of any discomfort or irritation being caused the wearer by this force.

I claim:

1. A foundation garment comprising an upper front central portion most elastic in the vertical direction, a lower front central bias cut portion secured to the outermost lower edge of said upper front central portion along the direction of a line which extends from the crotch of the wearer to the crest of the hip of the wearer and the direction of elasticity of said bias cut portion being substantially along the direction of a line which extends from the crotch of the wearer to the crest of the hip of the wearer; said first mentioned portion and said bias cut portion having joining edges and said joining edges of said firstmentioned portion and said bias cut portion being concave with respect to each other prior to their being joined together whereby when joined together the panels will be pre-stretched and will accentuate the inward and upward force applied by the garment to the abdomen of the wearer, said upper front central portion comprising two panels joined together along the vertical front center line of the garment, the adjacent edges of said panels prior to their being joined together being concave with respect to one another whereby when joined together the panels will be prestretched and will accentuate the inward force exerted on the abdomen of the wearer.

2. A foundation garment comprising an upper front central portion most elastic in the vertical direction and a lower front central bias cut portion secured to said upper front central portion and being most elastic along the direction of a line which extends from the crotch of the wearer to the crest of the hip of the wearer, said bias cut portion being joined to said first-mentioned portion along a line at an acute angle with the vertical and said first-mentioned portion and REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,402,643 Newman Jan. 3, 1922 2,326,476 Mayer Aug. 10, 1943 2,344,375 Stephens Mar. 14, 1944 2,442,894 Hendricks June 8, 1948 2,489,111 Stone Nov. 22, 1949 2,490,137 Keller Dec. 6, 1949 2,507,593 Glosios May 16, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 640,666 France Apr. 3, 1928 884,924 France May 10, 1943 

